The jobs-and-economy election suddenly seems all about Medicare — for now, at least.

Republican Mitt Romney is embracing a topic his party usually approaches gingerly. He is taking a calculated risk that voters’ worries about federal deficits and the Democrats’ health-care overhaul have opened the door for a robust debate on the solvency of Medicare, the insurance program for retirees.

President Barack Obama is welcoming the conversation, which has temporarily taken attention from the weak economic recovery.

One party may regret its position Nov. 6.

Retirees in politically prized states such as Florida have often resisted changes in Medicare, one of the government’s most popular but costliest programs. But GOP strategists say today’s voters realize Medicare spending must be constrained, and Romney is banking on disenchantment with Obama’s 2010 health care law to pave the way for his own proposals.

Romney, who has spent more than a year running almost entirely on the economy and jobs, put Medicare at the campaign’s center when he chose as his running mate. Rep. Paul Ryan is Congress’ chief advocate of significantly restraining entitlement programs.

Ryan did not address his Medicare plan at a campaign stop in Glen Allen, Va., on Friday, a break from the previous day’s events in Ohio, where the issue figured prominently in his remarks. But the Wisconsin congressman is expected to revisit Medicare in some depth in Florida on Saturday, when he will appear with his 78-year-old mother, a Medicare recipient.

“We will not duck the tough issues; we will lead,” Ryan told the Virginia crowd.

Romney’s willingness to tackle the issue was underscored Thursday when he used a marker and classroom-type whiteboard to summarize his thoughts on Medicare, with hardly a word about the unemployment rate. He said his plans would keep Medicare solvent while Obama’s would not, a claim Democrats call absurd.

Obama’s campaign has tried for months to tie Romney to House Republicans and Ryan’s budget proposal, which would turn Medicare into a voucher-like system for future retirees. The Obama campaign released a new TV ad Friday defending the president’s record on Medicare. It points to the AARP, a group that represents senior citizens and said in a letter to lawmakers this year that Ryan’s plan would lead to higher costs for seniors.

Romney’s campaign disputed the ad, and repeated its own claim that Obama’s plans would siphon spending from Medicare without safeguarding the program’s long-term stability.

Obama’s Medicare policies are included in his 2010 health care overhaul, passed without a single Republican vote in Congress. Polls show “Obamacare” to be generally unpopular, though many key components, standing alone, enjoy wide support.

The Romney-Ryan proposal would give future retirees a fixed amount of money to pick their health insurance from competing private plans or a government program. It would limit taxpayers’ burden, but also force many patients to pay more of their health costs.

Some Democrats seemed happy to have another campaign week go by with comparatively modest focus on the nation’s 8.3 percent unemployment rate. The economy has remained voters’ top priority in the campaign so far, although several polls conducted before Ryan’s selection suggested the federal budget deficit was not far behind.

A Pew Research Center poll in June, for example, found 35 percent called “jobs” the most important issue in deciding their vote, while 23 percent chose the budget deficit, 19 percent health care, 11 percent Social Security, 5 percent immigration and 4 percent gay marriage.